I was a hugely unchaperoned reader, and I would wander into my local public library and there sat the world, waiting for me to look at it, to find out about it, to discover who I might be inside it.

Sometimes witches merit saving. Quite often, actually. You'd be surprised.

And otherwise normal men become monsters, too.

We sure as ruddy heck ain't in Prentisstown no more," I say to Manchee under my breath.

Ah, well, then you've never stood on a beach as the waves came crashing in, the water stretching out from you until it's beyond sight, moving and blue and alive and so much bigger than even the black beyond seems because the ocean hides what it contains.

And it hurts her, but it's an okay hurt, but it hurts still, but it's good, but it hurts.

That's what librarians do. They open up the world. Because knowledge is useless if you don’t know how to find it, if you don’t even know where to begin to look.